Optical dielectric function of gold

In metal optics gold assumes a special status because of its practical importance in optoelectronic and nano-optical devices, and its role as a model system for the study of the elementary electronic excitations that underlie the interaction of electromagnetic fields with metals. However, largely inconsistent values for the frequency dependence of the dielectric function describing the optical response of gold are found in the literature. We performed precise spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements on evaporated gold, template-stripped gold, and single-crystal gold to determine the optical dielectric function across a broad spectral range from 300 nm to 25 $\ensuremath{\mu}$m (0.05--4.14 eV) with high spectral…

• NS
  National Science Foundation